


Dying is Easy

by costumejail



Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: (kind of), 5+1 Things, Afterlife, Also some permanent deaths, Canon Temporary Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Past Character Death, Past Violence, Post-SING (Music Video), Post-Traffic Report (Song), Rebirth, Religion, Sacrifice, Superstition, Temporary Character Death, a very loose 5+1, the kobracola doesnt have any content but its a driving force, the tags sound so depressing i promise its more rounded than you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:21:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25517968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/costumejail/pseuds/costumejail
Summary: A collection of times that Cherri Cola died.
Relationships: Agent Cherri Cola & Motorbaby | Grace (Danger Days), Agent Cherri Cola & Phoenix Witch (Fabulous Killjoys), Agent Cherri Cola/Kobra Kid (Danger Days)
Comments: 74
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There aren't a whole lot of warnings that apply to the first chapter, other than temporary character death (which applies to every chapter). If anything, there's a bit of talking about waveriding and the past dead of an OMC.

All at once, the heat of the sun faded. A gentle rustling, like feathers, filled Cherri Cola’s ears and he shivered, though he wasn’t cold. 

“Get up,” something poked Cherri’s side. 

He squirmed with discomfort, not willing to open his eyes. “D’we gotta move?” It was probably Fun Ghoul, alerting Cherri to some danger only he could see that would necessitate them dragging their sun-scorched bodies across the sand. 

“You do not have to do anything, Cherri Cola. You’re dead.”

That got Cherri’s attention. He opened his eyes and took in the figure standing, no,  _ floating _ _,_ over him. They were short, a mass of black feathers topped by a mask with too many eyes. Clawed hands curled together where the figures’ stomach  _ might _ be and as Cherri blinked at them in the harsh sunlight, an eye on the cheek of their mask blinked back. 

“I’m... Dead?” Repeated Cherri numbly. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t feel like he normally did between radiation-induced stupors. His head was clear and his skin didn’t feel dry or hot. He didn’t feel much of anything, actually.

“When you lie in the sun for nine days with no food and minimal water, that happens.” The figure floated closer, extending a heavily bandaged and gnarled hand to him. 

The hand that Cherri reached back with glowed blue. He stared at it in awe, almost forgetting about the feathered... Person? That was watching him. 

“You’re dead. You look different,” they summed up impatiently. “Come. There is much you need to hear.”

Cherri nodded numbly and allowed them to help him up. Standing, Cherri was roughly the same height as the apparition, though they bobbed up and down slightly as they floated above the sand. 

“So if I’m-“

“Dead, yes.”

“Are you dead too?”

A hoarse chuckle oozed from under the mask. A few of the eyes rolled derisively and Cherri felt dizzy from watching it. Or, would have felt dizzy if his body wasn’t still lying on the ground next to Ghoul. 

“No. Neither is your companion.”

“Oh. So you’re...”

“You would know me as the Phoenix Witch.”

“You’re real?” Cherri couldn’t stop himself from exclaiming

She hummed, drifting away from Ghoul and Cherri’s body. At a bit of a loss for what else to do, Cherri followed her. 

“And I’m just... dead? That’s it? I don’t have a mask, am I stuck like this forever?”

“Hmm... No.” The Witch paused in the shade of a joshua tree and allowed a raven to land on what passed for her shoulder. It poked its beak under the edge of her mask and all of her eyes closed as it murmured something. Then the Witch nodded and the bird flew off again. Cherri watched the exchange with wide eyes. Tucking her bandaged feet up into her cloak, the Witch appeared to sit on nothing and gazed at Cherri calmly.

Given that the Witch didn’t seem eager to elaborate, Cherri tried to organize his thoughts. 

“But, with no mask, where will my soul go?”

“This is temporary. You’ll be back in your body soon enough.”

“But- But I’m dead.”

“Yes.”

Cherri spread his glowing hands helplessly, “So that’s it. I’m dead. Isn’t that the end?”

“Not for you, Cherri Cola.”

“Why not? What makes me so special? I haven’t done... Anything. I don’t even pray to you! I- I don’t understand.”

“You all want to understand so badly, is it not enough to take what you are given and be thankful?”

“No! I’m- I’m dead and now you’re telling me that I did something to deserve being what? Sent back?”

“ _ You _ did not do anything.”

“Then why?”

A low buzz started emitting from the Witch’s chest and she patted at the air next to her. Cherri sat, if sitting was the right word for it, where the Witch gestured and she pulled his hand toward her.

“This bracelet,” she stuck a rough talon between the beaded string looped around Cherri’s wrist and his skin. 

“Y- Yeah?”

“That is why. Do you remember how you got this bracelet?”

_ Cherri was lying on a worn blanket, aching from the blaster wound in his shoulder and his fractured ankle. The flap to his crew’s tent swung open and Cherri reached for his ray gun, but it was only Glass Phantom, sneaking into the sweltering shelter with a sheepish grin. _

_ “How ya feelin, Soda Pop?” _

_ “I feel like shit, Phantom.” Swearing was new to Cherri, but he liked the way the words rolled off his nine-year-old tongue and he liked the way it made his crewmate giggle. _

_ “Got somethin’ for ya’,” Phantom sat cross-legged next to Cherri’s blanket and grabbed Cherri’s hand. _

_ A groan slipped through Cherri’s teeth as his wounded shoulder protested the movement, but Phantom didn’t seem to notice as he busied himself doing something to Cherri’s wrist. When he pulled back, Cherri took in the new bracelet he wore. It was a black string, knotted with green beads and fastened securely around Cherri’s wrist. _

_ “Thanks! What- What’s- What’s it for?” Despite being born in the city, a lifetime in the desert meant that Cherri knew at least some sandpup traditions. Still, the bracelets that crewmates gifted each other were more confusing to Cherri than other rituals. _

_ “I can’t tell ya! ‘S a secret. But, uh- Don’t take it off, yeah? Special jus’ for  _ you _.” _

_ “Shit! My first bracelet! Do I- Do I have t’ give you anything back?” _

_ “Nah,” Phantom stretched out beside Cherri. “Jus’ keep it on, keep runnin’.” _

_ “Shiny.” _

“I- Gla-“ The name burned Cherri’s tongue. “My old crewmate gave it to me.”

“He made it for you. You might have met me much earlier and he didn’t want your light to die before you have done what you need to. Glass Phantom trapped me into a deal by making that bracelet for you.”

Cherri’s head swam at the thought that his old crewmate had met the  _ Phoenix Witch. _ Though Phantom had been born and raised a familiar, Cherri had always chalked his devout belief in the Witch up to, well, superstition. “But how? It’s- It’s just a bracelet.”

At this, the Phoenix Witch let out a laugh that Cherri felt, rather than heard. It ran down his spine like the blade of a knife and he found himself paralyzed when the Witch fixed him in a stare. 

“Yes. And no. It is a bracelet, but your mate made a deal with me that turned this bracelet,” the Witch tripped her claws over the beads as she spoke. “Into a... Hm. A powerful item.”

The bracelet went hot at these words, the first real temperature that Cherri had felt since, apparently, dying. He snatched his hand back, rubbing at his wrist, but the bracelet passed through him and remained with the Witch. 

“Count the beads, Cola.”

Twelve. Cherri counted twelve green beads as they slid between the Witch’s fingers. 

“Twelve.”

“Eleven now,” the Witch crushed one of the beads between her fingers and replaced the string on Cherri’s wrist. “One bead. One death.”

Scared of the answer, Cherri forced himself to ask, “What happens when I run out of beads?”

“No one can live forever, Cola.”

“But why me?”

“Ask your crewmate.”

“I- I don’t have a crew anymore. Do you mean Ghoul?”

“His brother.”

“But he’s dead.”

“So are you.”

“So can I? Talk to him?”

“No,” the Witch pointed back at Cherri’s bracelet. “Not until the last bead is gone, anyway.”

Internally, Cherri groaned. The Witch must have picked up on it because she faced Cherri fully and removed her mask. 

The desert faded away. Cherri and the Witch were alone in an endless void. But this all escaped Cherri’s attention as he looked at the place where the Phoenix Witch’s mask had been. There was no face, like Cherri had been expecting, but neither was there an empty void. As soon as Cherri looked at it, it changed, flowing between shapeless forms so smoothly that Cherri couldn’t pick out the changes until they were long in the past. A nameless fear gripped him and he tried to close his eyes but he found himself trapped staring at the place where the mask should be. Cherri opened his mouth to scream, yet no sound came out and try as he might, he still couldn’t look away. 

Seemingly satisfied, the Witch replaced the mask that was her face and hummed softly. 

“You might want to learn some respect before we meet again, Cherri Cola.”

His ghostly hands still covering eyes that had seen too much, Cherri nodded. “Y- Yes, Lady. I’m sorry. I-“

“Consider yourself lucky. Another death is not a thing easily granted. To have twelve is an honour I’ve yet to bestow elsewhere.”

Cherri dropped his eyes, finally, from the face of the Witch and twisted his fingers in the bracelet hard enough that it should have hurt. That same rusty chuckle sounded and the Witch first brushed Cherri’s hair back, then danced her talons down the side of his face. The caress was almost comforting, despite knowing the horror that lay beneath the Witch’s ragged facade. 

“Consider yourself forgiven.”

“Thank you,” whispered Cherri.

“Now you’ll want to get back, I think. Your companion is awake and getting... nervous that you aren’t responding.”

Cherri looked back at his corpse and saw Ghoul lying half on his side and slapping at Cherri’s face shakily.

“How do I? Get back, that is.”

“I’ve taken your bead. Next time, that will be enough but for now I need a... favour of sorts.”

“Anything, Lady.”

“Make a mask. Bring those you find to my mailbox. When your time finally comes, it will be easiest if your soul is in one place. And I tire of gathering masks myself.”

“I will. I pro-“

“Don’t make those lightly,” warned the Witch. “All I ask is a favour.”

Worried of saying the wrong thing, Cherri just nodded. 

“Then until next time, Cherri Cola.”

The Witch uncrossed her legs and straightened up. She grasped Cherri’s head in one hand and brought him close to touch her mask, as though kissing his forehead. 

Cherri expected the mask to feel dry, or smooth, or cool. But he felt nothing except the blistering heat of the sun again. He opened his eyes to see Fun Ghoul lying over him, a concerned look decorating his sun-marred features. 

“We need t’ move. We- There’s- Le’s go, Cher. You- You weren’ wakin’ up.”

Cherri’s mouth was far too dry to reply and he couldn’t remember what he would have said anyway. Something about a bird, maybe? A shifting inevitability and an unmoving progression. Beads?

Cherri looked at his wrist and saw the same scarred and blistered skin. The same dirty glass beads. Something was off but the longer he stared the further from his mind the answer, even the question was. 

A trickle of water dropped into Cherri’s mouth and he swallowed slowly, reminding himself how to do so more than actually hydrating himself. He let Ghoul help him to his feet. They leaned heavily against each other as they limped toward, hopefully, a place that would have food and more water. 

From behind them, a bird cawed. A broken, rusted sound that chased sudden chills across the back of Cherri’s neck. His eyes slipped closed, not that he needed them to see much anyway. As the bird shrieked again, Cherri saw the waves in his mind’s eye. They took the shape, not of a bird, but of a shambling figure and for a moment, Cherri swore he could feel a gnarled hand on his cheek. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter are basically just a bit of non-graphic violence and some more talking about waveriding.

The instant the wavehead’s knife pierced Cherri’s chest he gasped. Not from pain, but surprise, because it felt like nothing. As his body fell backwards, Cherri remained standing in a form that glowed blue. 

“You’re back,” came a dry voice from behind him. 

Cherri turned, only half shocked to see a feathered figure floating a few inches off the ground.

“It wasn’t a dream.” 

An unforgettable chuckle seeped out of the black-and-white face of the Phoenix Witch as she agreed, “it was not a dream.”

“And I’m dead again?”

“You were stabbed in the heart. Yes, Cherri Cola, you are dead again. Three months is sooner than I was expecting you,” the Witch drifted forward and poked Cherri’s sternum with a wizened claw. “You forgot my favour.”

Looking down at his corpse, Cherri saw the waveheads looting his unmoving form. He remembered his first conversation with the Witch and winced, he still had no mask. 

“I’m sorry, Lady. I didn’t think you were actually rea-”

“What more proof do you need?”

Cherri bit his lip and ran a hand through his ghostly hair. “Make my mask,” he dared to ask. 

Fully facing Cherri, the Witch reached for the bottom of her mask and hooked one finger underneath it. Cherri flinched and turned away, just in case she decided to show him what lay beneath her face again. 

“That’s a bold request from one who could not pay back a favour after I returned him from the dead,” the Phoenix Witch’s voice was ice. 

“Indeed, Lady,” Cherri turned back slowly, making sure that the Witch’s face was in place. “But it’s a favour that I can’t fulfill on my own. Ghoul and I don’t have the money for masks and-“

“I will make a mask for you, Cherri Cola. But it will be up to you to find it.”

“And Ghoul?” Cherri tried pushing his luck. 

“He has no such deal with me.”

“That’s not f-“ The words died in Cherri’s throat. What was fair, really? “Alright.”

“Are you ready to go back then?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“No,” another buzz radiated from the Witch’s chest. “If you are not going forward from here, I have others to attend to.”

“Do you visit everyone that dies?”

“No.”

“But not just me?”

“Not just you,” confirmed the Witch. 

Overhead, a raven croaked and landed next to Cherri’s head, somehow not falling through his bodiless shoulder. It fixed him with a beady glare, then turned to the Witch. She nodded and the bird jumped off Cherri’s shoulder. It flew down and attacked his wrist, striking a bead with its beak until it shattered and fell off of his bracelet. 

Cherri barely restrained himself from batting the bird away but rubbed at his wrist balefully. 

“If you asked, I would just give you the bead.”

“Anyone else would not willingly give me a death.”

“Respectfully, I’m not anyone else.”

At that, the Witch genuinely laughed. It was still a hoarse, grating sound, but it didn’t fill Cherri with the same dread as her other laughs. 

“That may be truer than you think, Cherri Cola,” she reached for his face and Cherri pressed into the touch. “Until next time.”

“Until next time.”

Closing his eyes, Cherri let the Witch pull him forward until his forehead passed through her mask. 

He opened his eyes to a dim sunset and a body that was missing everything of value he had had when he was last alive. Sunburned skin protested as Cherri rolled to his feet and wandered off to find Fun Ghoul. And to find his mask. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings!  
> \- (Temporary) non-graphic suicide  
> \- Just some intense saviour/martyr complex stuff

Three days after Dr. Death-Defying broadcast a traffic report that brought Cherri Cola’s world to a screeching halt, he closed his eyes and fired a ray gun blast that he didn’t feel. 

He had barely opened his eyes to a familiar limbo before he started to beg. 

“Bring them back.”

The Phoenix Witch appeared before Cherri’s eyes. She stood tall, as tall as she could at least, and calmly met Cherri’s gaze. 

“There are less volatile ways to get my attention, Cherri Cola.”

“What? Like praying? Like dropping letters in your mailbox? Carving pleas into masks?” For once, Cherri didn’t stutter as he ranted. “Screaming curses at the sky? Because I’ve tried those and you. Didn’t. Respond.”

“Mind your tone, the deaths of just two killjoys are not of the highest priority to me. It is not your choice who I bestow blessings on.”

The Witch turned to leave and Cherri did something reckless. The risk of her revealing something he could never forget was undeniable, but in the moment, Cherri only had one goal in mind. He shouted angrily at the feathered shape of the Phoenix Witch.

“But I’m high enough priority that you never keep me waiting? Witch, I- That’s you, isn’t it? Lady, please. Bring them back.”

She paused, and turned her head back to face Cherri, “Jet Star and the Kobra Kid have no deal with me as you do. It’s been so long, Cherri Cola. How many deaths do you have left?”

Furiously, Cherri shook his wrist at the Witch. Six green beads rattled against each other. 

“Only five after this, was a futile request worth that?” She gestured at the blaster wound that had brought Cherri back to her. 

“Two is more than most get, five more is a blessing that I don’t want. Not- Not without them,” Cherri’s voice broke. 

“I’d be lying if I said I wanted to help. They are not a part of the deal your crewmate made with me. Besides, you shoul-”

“An- And what was the deal, Lady?”

“One bead for one death, Cherri Cola. You didn’t forget.”

Floundering for words, Cherri’s eyes filled with angry tears that would never leave his eyes. The Witch floated towards him and traced over the skin under his eyes with her talons. The years had brought a comforting familiarity to the Witch’s caresses, but comfort wasn’t what Cherri was after. 

“One bead, one life. Do they have to be my lives?”

“You would give two deaths to them? They are not your responsibility, Cherri Cola.” 

The words left the Witch as though she had never considered that someone would make such a sacrifice.

“They’re my family,” insisted Cherri. “I’d give my last for them.”

“And leave yourself with three deaths?”

“Tell me you didn’t have plans for them. Tell me that this is what you meant when you told Jet that they’d follow Poison to the ends of the earth.” Cherri was glowing a brighter blue than normal, his anger visible even to himself. “Tell me your plan for my family involved two of them dusted out of Route Guano because their bikes ran out of gas with an exterminator on the horizon. Tell me that, Lady.”

The Witch pulled back and scratched under her mask. Cherri was no longer scared of what lay below her face and glared at the Witch until she removed her hand from that abyss. She considered her claws as she spoke.

“Best laid plans, child. This may not be the ending intended for Jet Star or your Kobra Kid, but it is the one they were given. Are you to tell me that you know better the rules of destiny than I?”

“No, Lady,” Cherri dropped his gaze to her bandaged feet. 

The Witch tucked one talon under Cherri’s chin and tipped it up so that he was looking at her again. If Cherri closed his eyes, he could almost imagine that he’d open them to see Kobes’ bright smile behind a pair of dark sunglasses. His heart ached and something on his face must have softened the Witch’s resolve. 

“Two deaths, Cherri Cola. Plus your own. Do not ask me for a favour again.”

Cherri took an unnecessary breath and worked his bracelet from his glowing wrist. He dropped it into the Witch’s outstretched hand, letting her pluck three beads from the string. The remaining beads slid around loosely as Cherri replaced the bracelet on his wrist. 

“Thank you, Lady. Will they- Will they know what I did?”

“Would you like them to?”

“No. I- They’d-“ Cherri paused to find the right words. “That’s a burden they shouldn’t have to shoulder.”

“As is this, to you.”

Cherri closed his eyes, knowing he couldn’t cry in this state didn’t change the way his vision blurred.

“Regardless, they won’t know what you did for them. Tell the other two that it was a false broadcast, I’ll alert the Doctor.”

“Until next time?”

“Until next time.”

Before letting the Witch press his forehead to her mask, Cherri snuck a kiss to an eyeless patch of her cheek. No thank-yous were adequate for a favour such as this, and Cherri prayed that it would be a long while before he returned to the Witch again. 

His forehead passed through her mask and he came to, leaning back against the mailbox. 

A new transmission buzzed through his radio and a familiar voice filtered out of the speaker. 

“Kobra Kid to Cherri Cola.”

Cherri took a minute to thank the Witch for her quick work and to control the sudden lump in his throat. 

“Go ahead, Kobes.”

“Do you have your truck? Jet and I got caught out on Route G. We need a ride.”

“Yeah. I’ll see you soon.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings!  
> \- Brainwashing  
> \- Permanent (offscreen) character deaths  
> \- Mentions of kidnapping and the kidnapping of a child  
> \- Self-deprecating thoughts/actions and a bit more of the saviour/martyr complex

Gary Levko knew from the moment the tube door closed behind him that something was wrong. The Director’s voice, perfectly cheerful, bubbled from the speakers embedded in the wall but over the hissing of a vent and the buzzing in his head, Gary couldn’t make out the words. He fell to his knees, then flat to the floor and lay there until his vision whited out.

Then his vision exploded into colour. He wasn’t in the city any longer, whatever he saw was completely unknown to him. Dull red sand spread in every direction, dotted with twisted green shapes and rocks splashed with colours that only belonged on the heads of pornodroids. The sky was lit up, not the regular gray that it was every day, but smeared with purple, orange, and yellow streaks. As he looked at what must have been a sunset, a blue glow seemed to emanate from himself. Gary knew that that was impossible, though. Even more impossible was the dim purple light coming from the statue in front of him. It was a strange statue, a savage-looking mask with a large amount of overly-realistic eyes was the only feature visible on the black form. Two heavily bandaged feet stuck out from below the, was it a cloak?

That made the most sense, that someone had draped a feathered cloak around the shoulders of the statue and that was why its shape was so obscured. 

This theory went out the window when the eyes on the statue blinked all at once and the statue began to move towards Gary. He tried to scramble backwards but made no headway across the wasteland he’d found himself in while the not-statue kept approaching.

“Be still, Cherri Cola,” a calm voice issued from the not-statue, but not from the mask it wore.

Gary tried and failed to keep the panic out of his voice as he replied, “I don’t know who that is. I don’t… I don’t think we’ve met.” A habitual smile slipped into place, even though smiling was the last thing Gary wanted to do at that moment. “My name is Gary Levko. I work for Better Living Industries. Have-” He swallowed nervously. “Have you smiled today?”

There was something familiar in the laughter that the not-statue let out. “No, Cherri Cola. I’ve not smiled today.”

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“Come here, child.”

Gary was unable to disobey and took a stumbling step forward. This time, he succeeded in moving closer to the not-statue. It reached towards him with a bandaged hand that looked more animal than human and Gary fought not to recoil when the figure stroked his cheek and then pressed the palm of its hand to his forehead.

Memories flooded Gary’s mind. Flashes of sunlight, neon beams from the barrels of guns, curly brown hair and long black braids, a car painted with bright, peeling paint, stars barely seen from the back of a truck, and a laugh that warmed him to his core. A bright smile behind a pair of dark sunglasses. He gasped in a breath that felt like his first in years.

“What happened to me? Where are they? Are- Is my family okay?” Cherri Cola begged the Phoenix Witch.

“Yes,” the Witch paused, combing Cherri’s hair back with her talons. “Well, they’re dead.”

A ragged sob ripped its way out of Cherri’s throat and he curled in on himself. The ground rushed up to meet Cherri as he sank to his knees and buried his face in his hands.

“You were… taken by the city,” she explained, sitting down next to Cherri. “Then your child was too. Your family gave their lives to rescue her.”

“But, y- you can b- bring them back, right? You have to. I- I’ll give you more beads, _please.”_

Cherri scrambled for his wrist, but he only found the cuff of a starched white shirt, not the old string of beads that belonged there. A gentle clinking alerted him that the Witch was holding something out, and he numbly accepted the bracelet from her.

The bracelet only held two beads when Cherri put it on his wrist.

“Your Kobra Kid would not put this in my mailbox,” from the folds of her cloak, the Witch brought out the very mask that she had made for Cherri Cola. “But Fun Ghoul did.”

Cherri barely heard the words, rolling the beads of his bracelet between his fingers as he ran through scenarios in his mind. When he came up with the one that hurt the least, he looked up and begged. “I- Poison and Jet. Bring back Poison and Jet. The Girl needs them. I’ll move on but please. Party Poison and Jet Star. For h-”

“No.”

“No?” repeated Cherri. A spark of rage bloomed inside of him.

“No.” For once, the Witch elaborated, “I told you years ago not to make any more requests of me. This is what your family was meant for. You, on the other hand, are not done yet.”

“Respectfully, why the fuck not, Lady? You won’t let me move on, you won’t bring them back. The Girl needs _someone_ and I’m useless without K- Without Ko-”

“Cherri Cola,” The Witch extended one hand and took his. “You once told me that you were not like anyone else. You existed long before you knew your Kobra Kid and you will continue to do so now.” She paused, listening to the whistling of the wind across the zones. “Bring me their masks. Fun Ghoul, Jet Star, your Kobra Kid, it is time for them to move forward.”

“And Poison?”

“It’s not his time yet.”

“Are they coming back?”

A buzz echoed out from under the Witch’s mask, it sounded like the hum of the city and Cherri slammed his hands over his ears. The sound vanished, replaced with the Witch’s voice. Shakily, Cherri looked up to see the Witch turning something else over in her hands. Something bright yellow and rigid. 

“That’s Poison’s mask.”

No reply came from the Witch. 

“Why do you have Poison’s mask?”

“You will not be taking it to my mailbox. Party Poison’s mask is needed even if he no longer is.”

“H- How is that fair? Fuck! How is any of this fair? Lady, I don’t und-”

“I have never expected you to understand, Cherri Cola. Just know what you must do now is bring me those masks.”

The mask vanished from the Witch’s hands as she pressed one palm to Cherri’s cheek. Cherri pulled out of her reach, wiping a hand over his cheek.

“And if I don’t? If I decide that I’ve had enough of running errands for you when you don’t give me _anything_ in return?”

“I believe the definition of anything might include twelve additional deaths.”

“Fuck you. Here,” Cherri worked the bracelet off of his wrist and threw it at the Witch. “My bead.”

With two long claws, the Witch plucked a bead from the bracelet and replaced it on Cherri’s arm. The lone bead remaining glinted dully in the glows from Cherri and the Witch.

“Twice more shall we meet, Cherri Cola.”

“What about the Girl?” The child that his family had given their lives for.

“You’ll find her in the desert.”

Cherri spread his transparent arms, “The desert’s big, Witch. Where is she?”

“You will be reunited when it is time. Until then, it would not do for you to dwell on what has left you behind.”

“Fuck, Witch, you couldn’t make this even a little easier?”

“Your tone, Cherri Cola,” the threat in the Witch’s words was obvious. “Come now.”

She cupped Cherri’s face in one hand again, stroking her thumb across his cheekbone. Cherri gripped the Witch’s wrists and fought to pull back. The thought of life without his family choked him as he gasped for breaths that he didn’t really need.

“No, Lady. I’m not ready. I- Without them I- Lady could I just see them once before I go back?”

The Witch’s grip on Cherri’s was firm, despite his protests, she brought him close to her face.

“Until next time, Cherri Cola.”

Cherri closed his eyes as he passed through the Witch’s mask and opened them to the desert sky. The bracelet was in place around his wrist. He was wearing his old vest and dog tags, clothes that he was sure BL/ind would have taken. Cherri took a deep breath that cracked in the middle. 

Each breath after that came faster until he was hyperventilating, sitting hunched on the rapidly cooling sands. Cherri thought of Ghoul’s laugh, Jet’s warm voice, the way Poison danced with the Girl. He remembered Kobes’ smile, how his eyebrows drew together when he was concerned, his even voice as he whispered soft words meant only for Cherri. Cherri broke down and sobbed for everyone he’d lost.

He wasn’t doing the Witch a favour. She was far from the goddess that Cherri had thought he'd known. He would do it for his family, though.

The moon was high in the sky by the time Cherri ran out of tears. He couldn’t see the stars, but he knew they were there. It took him a moment to get oriented in the darkness, then Cherri set out in the direction of Zone Six, and the diner he and his family used to call home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings!  
> \- A little discussion of self-amputation/infected wounds/rotting flesh  
> \- A vague threat of suicide

A sweet smell filled Cherri Cola’s nose as his eyes slipped shut. The sand beneath him was wet, which was strange because he lived in a desert. When the smell faded and the sand felt like nothing, Cherri knew he’d died again.

“Fuck. Off.” He groaned before even opening his eyes.

“It’s been so long, Cherri Cola,” replied the Phoenix Witch dryly. “I believe it is customary to say ‘Nice to see you’.”

“I don’t think you’d take kindly to being lied to.”

Cherri opened his eyes finally. The Witch was floating above him, much like their first meeting. But, unlike their first meeting, Cherri wasn’t confused, the Phoenix Witch had no answers he wanted to hear, and he was ready to return to the world of the living. He moved to push himself up from his horizontal position, but only one arm responded.

He only had one arm, evidently.

“Where’s my arm?”

“You didn’t think to ask how you died this time?” The Witch extended a clawed hand that Cherri grudgingly accepted, pulling him to his feet before continuing. “You cut your arm off and buried it, yet some wounds run deeper than the surface.”

“So my arm got infected, I died, I still have one bead left. Here,” he thrust his arm at the Witch. “Send me back.”

“Six years have taught you nothing, child.”

“I’m not a fucking child. What did you think I’d learn in six years on my own? You said I’d find the Girl and I didn’t. I can’t even fucking go near anyone because half of ‘em think I’m a ghost and half of ‘em think _I’ll_ ghost them. I put the fucking masks in your mailbox, I put every mask I find in your mailbox. And what have I gotten for it? I’m _tired,_ Lady. Just send me back so I can die one last time.”

The Witch slowly accepted Cherri’s bracelet and plucked the remaining bead from it. As the bead was crushed between the Witch’s talons, a clawlike shiver ran down Cherri’s spine.

“Your family misses you.”

Cherri’s rage flared at the calm statement. He ignored the undercurrent of pain that accompanied it.

“Don’t tell me that shit. Do you want me to finish whatever fucking bullshit job you’ve decided I have or do you want to see me again in half an hour?”

“I don’t want anything, Cherri Cola. I was simply passing the message along. Whatever you do until we meet next is your decision, but I’m sure your family won’t be pleased if you gave up because you were lonely.”

And that was it, really. Cherri was lonely. He thought about the family he’d lost, Poison, Jet, Ghoul, and Kobes, and he _ached_ for them. As the anger he’d carried for six years faded, Cherri’s eyes filled with tears he couldn’t cry.

“Tell me about them?” He pleaded.

“Fun Ghoul has not yet run out of stories about you to tell his brother,” Cherri took a steadying breath. “Jet Star asks about you often. They worry, especially after you went after those draculoids that were defiling my mailbox.” A wet chuckle escaped Cherri at the memory of Jet’s worried face. “Your Kobra Kid misses his sibling. And he requested I give you this.”

The Witch brought out from her cloak a tangle of knotted thread. Yellow and blue string, tied with a lone red bead in the center of the bracelet. 

A commitment band.

Through the lump in his throat, Cherri asked the Witch to help him tie it on. She obliged, her gnarled claws surprisingly gentle with the accessory.

“How long has he had this?”

“Hm… He had it when he went into the city.”

Cherri sucked in a breath. "That long?”

“The blink of an eye in the face of an eternal commitment.”

“I-” 

“Unless you want me to take it back?”

“No!” Cherri snatched his wrist back. “Uh… How’s Poison?”

“Party Poison is… Lonely, too. They are watching you. You haven’t made this easy for them.”

Something almost like guilt lodged itself in Cherri’s chest.

“How long until he can move on?”

“Soon,” The Witch assured Cherri. “You’ll meet your Girl again and together you will help Party Poison move forward.”

“Thank you, Lady. I’m sorry I lost my way.”

“It seems it is only human to do so. All is forgiven, Cherri Cola.”

“Until next time then?”

“You have no quarrel with draculoids, leave your weapon for the battles that matter.”

The instruction was presented as a request, but Cherri knew what a request meant to the Witch. He nodded and shuffled forward until the Witch could take his face in her gnarled hands.

“I will. Can you-”

“I will tell your family you miss them, too.”

The lump was back in Cherri’s throat again. He nodded jerkily.

“Until next time.”

Cherri passed through the Witch’s face and reemerged in the world of the living. Whatever healing took place while Cherri was in limbo had cleared his head enough that he realized the sweet smell in the air was his hastily-buried and rotting arm. The stump he was left with had already scarred over, too.

Cherri stood, the empty string around his wrist felt strange, he didn’t remember the Witch giving it back to him. He looked down at his wrist and saw, not the black string that had been his for two-thirds of his life, but a blue-and-yellow band that was now his forever. Cherri pressed a kiss to the intricate band.

Then he set off in the direction of the Radio Shack, knowing that, regardless of how long it had been, Dr. Death-Defying would be willing to take him in again, even for one night.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings!  
> \- Permanent character death  
> \- Some violence and a short description of an injury

Before Cherri entered the fight, he knew it would be his last. A raven screamed overhead as the Girl took a hit and collapsed, Cherri felt its shadow pass over him when he ran into the fray. Cherri fired shot after shot, taking out draculoids like he hadn't in years. Within a minute though, a ray gun blast hit home, sending Cherri to the ground.

For a moment, he lay there as his back sizzled and burned, then the pain faded and Cherri Cola was, for the last time, dead. He opened his eyes to see the Witch bending down over his form, her clawed hands grasping his mask.

“Hey! Get away from him!” The Girl yelled at the Witch.

The Witch turned to stare down the Girl, but Cherri sat up quickly before the Witch had time to punish the perceived slight.

“It’s alright, she’s-”

“Poor soul,” no warning was present in the Witch’s voice, just her best attempt at sympathy. “The first time he picks up a gun in years, he gets gunned down. And it was because of you, you know. He was trying to save you.”

“He _did_ save me,” insisted the Girl. She looked at Cherri with wide eyes, “Cola, you _did_ save me.”

“No, baby,” Cherri shot a glance at the Witch. “I didn’t”

“But you’re- Wait... Did I die? Am I dead?”

“Yes. For now at least,” assured the Witch.

“‘For now’? What the hell are you talking about? Who are you?”

“ _Taamit_ , she’s- Well, to us she’s the Phoenix Witch.”

“Cola, you’re d- Are you okay?”

Cherri looked down at his corpse, sprawled on the dry ground. He considered the answer that the Girl would want to hear versus the real answer and decided on something in the middle.

“Yes. Well, I’m dead. But yes.”

“Cherri Cola is not your concern, child. We have known each other through many cycles of life and death. I’ll take care of him when I’ve sent you back.”

“Back where?”

“Back to life, child.”

“Back to-? But I’m _dead_.”

It was painfully similar to the first conversation that Cherri had had with the Witch, all those years ago. He remembered how irritating the Witch’s refusal to give a clear answer had been, and decided to step in before the Girl’s temper flared.

“For now you are,” Cherri put his hand on the Girl’s shoulder. “If I’m right in thinking, however,” he looked at the Witch who tilted her mask. “Your journey isn’t over yet. And for you to move forward now isn’t what anyone needs.”

“What-?”

“What history did your family teach you when they were alive?” Interrupted the Witch.

“Like about the wars and stuff?”

“ _Your_ history, Girl.”

“I,” the Girl furrowed her brow in the same way Fun Ghoul used to when he was thinking hard about something. “I had a- a mom? And she gave birth to me but I couldn’t stay with her. It wasn’t… It wasn’t safe for me.”

“Half right, you and your family taught her much, Cherri Cola,” a pleased hum escaped the Witch’s core. “Your mom was one of the original killjoys. She was a rebel, a freedom fighter, and a leader. She fought for a future that has not yet arrived.”

“You knew my mom?”

“No.”

“But-”

“I have eyes, child.”

Cherri nearly chuckled at that but felt like he needed to elaborate where the Witch wouldn’t. “They put a mask on your mother. But her soul didn’t escape into the mask when she became a draculoid, it went deeper. She was pregnant.”

The Girl gasped softly. 

“Her soul went into you, all of her rage, her pain, her _power_. Do you remember how you used to-?”

The Witch cut Cherri off impatiently. “You are a bomb, child. You were born in the city and rescued from it by a bunch of teenagers with a penchant for caffeine and artificially flavoured drinks.”

“You’re telling me I’m- I’m a bomb? Like I can go _boom_? Cola, did you know?”

“ _Mariposa_ , we knew you were powerful. You had an influence over the electricity in the diner that we never quite got a handle on.”

“You can end things or begin them. You can charge batteries or drain them. Give life or take it away.”

“So my whole life, all I’ve been meant to do was blow up Bat City? How is- How is that fair? I’m just a weapon to you people?” The Girl was shaking, her glowing blue form flickering much wilder than Cherri’s ever had.

“No, Girlie. We tried to give you the childhood that none of us had. All of us, Poison, Ghoul, Jet, Kobes. You were meant to be our saviour but first and foremost you were _our kid_. We never-” Cherri cut himself off as the Witch hummed again.

“Weapons, destruction, death. Pah,” lifting her mask just slightly, the Witch spat out a feather. “Killing is so easy a germ can do it. A stray blade or an errant ray gun blast. You are better than that. One more favour, before I send you back…”

With a glance back at Cherri, the Witch guided the Girl away. Cherri watched her gesture widely with her wizened hands, but mostly he was looking at the Girl that he’d known for so long, yet no time at all. The thought came to Cherri that this was, for hopefully a long while, the last time he would see the Girl. He watched the Witch cup the Girl’s face in her hands as she’d done to him so many times and ran forward before he lost the chance.

“Wait!”

The Witch pulled back, an eye or two rolling amusedly. Cherri’s incorporeal figure slammed into the Girl’s and he wrapped her in a hug, resting his chin on top of her head.

“Safe travels, _Reinita_.”

“Cola, I-” The Girl looked at the Witch, who was emanating a shushing sound as she pressed one talon to the space her mouth had never been. “Tell everyone I love them. I’ll see you again.”

Unable to speak, Cherri pressed a kiss to the Girl’s forehead, then he moved back and allowed the Witch to take her face in her hands again.

“Until next time, child.”

The Girl closed her eyes as the Witch pulled her to her face. Cherri turned away against the glow that flared up as the Girl was sent back to life.

“Thank you, Lady. You’ll watch over her?”

“I won’t have to. Are you ready, Cherri Cola?”

Cherri looked at the Girl’s body. 

Her eyes flew open and she stood shakily. She walked to Cherri’s corpse and knelt, detangling the dog tags from around his neck and putting them on before setting off into the desert.

“I think I am.”

“I will not say ‘until next time’, though I may see you again. Your family is waiting for you.”

Cherri closed his eyes as the Witch brought her hands to his face one last time. He leaned into her ragged touch and, as he passed through her face, hot tears leaked out of his eyes.

When they opened, Cherri couldn’t see anything through the mass of black and brown hair in his face. He hugged Fun Ghoul and Jet Star close, then nodded at Party Poison when he was free of the embrace. Poison moved to the side, revealing someone Cherri knew very well. 

Someone with a bright smile behind a pair of dark sunglasses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicknames used for the Girl in this chapter:  
> \- Taamit = Sun (Serrano)  
> \- Mariposa = Butterfly (Spanish)  
> \- Reinita = Princess (Spanish)

**Author's Note:**

> Credit for me actually posting this goes to Pi [@ghostxraven](ghostxraven.tumblr.com)! Thanks for all the help and encouragement!
> 
> Tell me what you thought! Leave a comment or come chat with me on [tumblr!](sleevesareforlosers.tumblr.com) Thanks for reading! <3


End file.
